Chattanooga Volleyball

[smdad]

The season kicks off tonight with several good matches around the area. Having had girls playing at the varsity level since the fall of 2004, it's a bittersweet start as my youngest takes the court to begin her senior year.

 

Tonight's slate includes several good matches, highlighted by Soddy at Red Bank. Other matches include:

 

Boyd-Buchanan at Baylor

Sale Creek at Hixson

East Hamilton at CCS

Bledsoe Co. at Signal Mountain

 

After viewing pre-season play, and thinking about the strenghts of the various teams, including the return of injured players, following is a Chattanooga area top ten based on where I expect the teams to finish by the end of the year. In updating the top ten, the key criterion will be head to head matchups.

 

1. Soddy-Daisy - dominated the pre-season playdays. Should be a top 4 team in AAA.

2. Baylor - some inconcistency during the playdays, but waiting on a couple of players to heal. A great chance to win it all in D-II.

3. Signal Mountain - I'm a homer. They move up to AA, but should play in Murfreesboro.

4. GPS - If the defense and passing come around, they will be very strong. They have hitters.

5. Sale Creek - The favorite to be A Champions.

6. Ooltewah

7. Walker Valley

8. Red Bank

9. Hixson

10. Notre Dame

 

Five of the teams from this group will compete in the Early Bird Tournament in Knoxville this weekend, and I imagine all of them will be in the Choo Choo the following weekend. This list will sort itself out in a hurry.

[smdad]

Monday Night Scores:

 

Hixson won a 5 game thriller over Sales Creek, 25-22, 21-25, 20, 25, 26-24 and 17-15

Soddy defeated Red Bank in 4 games, 25-24, 12- 25, 25-17, 25 - 15.

East Hamilton defeated CCS in 3 games

Signal defeated Bledsoe County in 3 games

Baylor defeated Boyd in 3 games

 

Tuesday Night's lineup is highlighted by GPS at Ooltewah and Cleveland at Walker Valley, and also includes the following matches:

 

East Ridge, Howard at Brainerd

Tyner at East Hamilton

Silverdale, Baylor at Hixon

Signal Mountain at Notre Dame

Marion Co. at Sale Creek

Rhea Co. at Soddy-Daisy

Cleveland at Walker Valley

Red Bank at Boyd-Buchanan

[PHargis]

Really a very good recap from the Chattanooga area.

[PHargis]

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_207505.asp

[CFS]

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_207505.asp

Ooltewah beat GPS 3 games to 1. After dropping the first game 25-22, Ooltewah played well for the last 3 games.

 

SD vs Ooltewah Thursday should be a good match.

Edited August 24, 2011 by CFS

[owls70]

walker valley defeats cleveland in 4 games.

[PHargis]

Ooltewah beat GPS 3 games to 1. After dropping the first game 25-22, Ooltewah played well for the last 3 games.

 

SD vs Ooltewah Thursday should be a good match.

You betcha, I wish I could see that one. It has to be very good.

[PHargis]

walker valley defeats cleveland in 4 games.

I thought Cleveland was very good but Walker Valley must be better. Where was it played.

[owls70]

played at walker valley. walker valley is athletic and able to return kills. sorry don't rember scores checkout cleveland banner or maybe chattanoogan.com 2 morow.

[PHargis]

Ooltewah Rallies To Defeat GPS In Volleyball Battle

Lady Owls Start Slow, But Finish Strong In 3-1 Victory

by John Hunt

posted August 23, 2011

 

 

Photo by Greg Davick

 

The Ooltewah Lady Owls have an important District 5-AAA volleyball match on Thursday against Soddy Daisy, but they had another big match at GPS Tuesday afternoon to take care of first.

 

Ooltewah coach Elaine Peigen wasn't very happy after watching her girls drop the opening game, 25-21, but she felt a lot better after they rallied to win the match with victories in the next three games.

 

That first game could have easily gone either way as the score was tied at 20-all.

 

However, the Bruisers made good things happen when they counted most as they won that game by scoring five of the final six points.

 

Ooltewah then came back and won those final three by scores of 25-12, 25-22 and 25-13 to claim their first match victory of the season.

 

"That first game was rough, but we came back and did a pretty good job in the next three," Peigen said when all the action had ended.

 

"We made too many mistakes in that first game and I think we had the first-match jitters.

 

"Izabela Zdunek is our libero for the first time and she was tense at first, but she did a fine job after she got warmed up," the veteran coach praised.

 

"We feel fortunate to get out of here with a win, but we've got a big week with the district match on Thursday against Soddy Daisy.

 

"We still have a long way to go, but we're glad to get the season started. We're tired of practicing. We have a lot of questions to answer and a match like this helps us do that.

 

"Overall, I'm pleased with the way we played," Peigen added.

 

GPS coach Paul Brock felt like his girls played well at the start, but things went downhill after that.

 

"We're still new as we've had two days with everyone together. We lost our ball control in the last three games and it's tough to play well when that happens.

 

"We have a lot of younger players and you always wonder just how they'll perform under pressure. We still have a lot to work on.

 

"We made a lot of service errors, which are correctable. We also had a lack of effort and enthusiasm at times. We'll work on that as well.

 

"We hit it hard and played pretty well in the first and third games. I have a lot of good athletes who are trying to become volleyball players.

 

 

Well I guess this answers the question about how strong Ooltewah might be.....PH

[PHargis]

posted August 23, 2011

 

East Ridge won their district volleyball openers on Tuesday with a 25-14, 25-12, 25-15 win over Brainerd and a 25-23, 25-15, 25-13 win over Howard.

 

East Ridge Cumulative Stats:

Daisha jackson - 21 kills, 12 assists, 7 digs, 1 block

Nelle Robbins - 13 kills, 1 block

JaNece Parham - 7 kills, 4 assists, 10 aces, 6 digs

Ieashia Taylor - 5 kills, 2 aces, 18 digs

Hannah Eldridge - 2 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs, 1 block

Michelle Hughes - 2 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks

Mimi Powell - 3 digs

Markia Harden - 3 aces, 30 digs

Jaida Broadnax - 20 assists, 3 aces, 3 digs

 

Defending state Champion Signal Mountain outlasted the Irish of Notre Dame 25-20, 21-25, 25-18, 22-25, and 15-13 to move to 2-0 in district play and on the season. The Eagles next match is Thursday at Grundy County.

 

Match Totals:

Callie Hildebrand - 17 kills, 21 digs, 3 aces, 2 blocks

Carly Jonakin - 5 kills, 2 blocks

Laura Powell - 8 kills, 6 digs

Taelor Kellum - 7 kills, 2 blocks

Paige Scudder - 4 digs, 1 ace, 21 assists

Allie Jennings - 24 digs, 1 ace

Kari Sivley - 7 digs, 11 assists

Carolynn Thielges - 11 digs, 14 assists

 

The Lady Trojans of Soddy-Daisy topped Rhea County 3-0 for their second straight win. Rhea County jumped out to a 8-3 lead in the

first game, but Soddy Daisy came on strong and won the first game 25-13. Soddy won the second game 25-11 and the third game 25-16.

 

Soddy Daisy Highlights:

Rachael Shaughnessy - 6 kills, 1 ace, 3 blocks

Kelsy Nunley - 6 kills, 1 ace, 5 digs

Megan Ware - 3 digs

Rebecca Johnson - 2 kills, 2 blocks, 1 dig

Sara Davis - 4 aces, 7 digs

Alex Schafer - 3 kills, 1 block, 2 digs

Olivia Holden - 7 assists, 1 ace

Cassidy Hackney - 11 assists, 7 digs

Laura Jenkins - 5 kills, 1 block, 3 digs

Haley Walker - 2 kills, 1 ace

Hayley Reynolds - 1 ace

Markia Thomas - 1 kill

Karigan Fulghum - 1 ace, 2 assists, 2 digs

Hanna Robertson - 2 aces, 3 digs

[vbinsider44]

I saw in the Chattanoogan Soddy beat Ooltewah 3-1 and GPS beat East Ridge 3-0